If watching Netflix all day long is your NO.1 priority and you have already made a hole into your new couch, then you can proudly wear the title “lazy”.
It is 100% true that some people are way lazier than others, and there are legit reasons behind this state. Lounging around all day long can be awesome for some people, and for others can be the source of unproductivity.
But, before we get more into the reasons why some of us are way lazier, we should firstly define what laziness really is.
How can we define laziness?
Laziness hides behind the purpose to spend as little energy as possible. When you have no will to start working on a certain task or obligation, and you feel like it would be extremely difficult, that’s the laziness making decisions for you.
When you hear people saying that some of us are simply lazy and that they were born with it, you should believe them (at least to some extent). The reality is that the majority of us are lazy – some more than others. Or, some of us simply hide it better.
You can find laziness in many shapes and forms: choosing to order a meal instead of preparing food at home, having someone else to clean your house instead of you, taking a taxi when you can walk for a mile or two. Laziness can be interpreted in so many activities, not just by lying down in bed. In some cases being lazy means that you choose to be comfortable instead of trying to make an effort.
Why some people are lazier than others?
As we already mentioned, there are many reasons and factors that can be the answer to our question: why we are lazier than other people around us. So, if you want to transform your laziness into productivity, or just lower down its impact on your life, first of all, you need to dig deeper and analyze each of those factors thoroughly.
1. Not having a purpose in life
Without a purpose in your life, everything that is left for you to do is to be lazy. Not giving enough attention to what you want to do in life, just so that you can avoid going out of your comfort zone, can lead to lots of failures and can greatly affect your happiness. This is the biggest factor that sparks our laziness and greatly complements every other factor that increases our laziness.
Try to discover your true passion in life, by making baby steps. As you already know, A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step. Don’t pressure yourself too much, because you can go back to the extreme laziness again if you fail at something.
2. Focused solely on tiny goals
Our ancestors didn’t have long-term goals. Instead, their goals were based on discovering food and surviving for the day. But, things have changed a lot and you need to change as well. There is a really big reason why you should start looking at the bigger picture of life. If you don’t dream about big goals that are difficult to achieve you might never find the passion you are looking for when working. By not finding your passion you will start feeling lazy a lot more often than usual.
Also, when the completion of a tiny goal is your top priority, you will quickly lose interest in things. If you want to avoid this, find a long-term goal that is difficult to achieve, and one that will truly fulfill your life.
3. Having Poor habits
Many people, including myself, have poor habits. Whenever I feel lazy my productivity suddenly decreases. For some people, no matter how lazy they feel, habits, and routines help them overcome those problems.
In order to create habits, you have to repeat a certain activity for 6-60 days. After those 2 months, no matter what happens in your life, you will always find it easier to finish your tasks. So don’t wait another day – choose at least one habit and try to stick with it for the next two months. If you do this successfully, you will be motivated to take even bigger steps and finally set the laziness under control.
4. Lack of motivation
Motivation plays a crucial role in overcoming our laziness. Motivation is directly correlated to goals and your purpose in life. If your goals are really important to you then you will find it easier to acquire and stay motivated for a long time.
Basically, your goals and life purpose are the keys to finding your motivation. Whenever you feel like you have no motivation, think about the benefits you will get when completing your goals. Another great thing you can do while staying in bed is watching motivational videos or reading some success stories about how people achieved their dreams. This can spark some positivity inside of you and make you do something better for yourself.
5. Discipline, discipline, discipline
Without discipline, you cannot be 100% focused on a certain job, which will help your mind trigger laziness. As a matter of fact, discipline makes you emotionally stronger and increases your self-control.
More importantly, discipline creates an environment where you can resist all distractions created by activities that give us immediate pleasure. Those activities increase our dopamine levels that after a while can trigger laziness.
Any idea how to become disciplined overnight? That’s why the internet is here to help you around. There are some pretty cool soldier stories since they are the true masters of discipline!
6. Fears Keep Them Down
Fear is like a double-edged sword that will either keep you from moving forward or be the path to your success. Many times our minds over-exaggerate on things that aren’t that scary. As long as we run from the things that spark fear in our hearts, we can never accomplish anything.
Controlling your fear is a great way to influence your levels of laziness. The more we think about the things we hate, the greater our laziness becomes. So, set your mind in a different direction. Instead of thinking of the bad scenarios, imagine what wonderful things are waiting for you if you decide to go on with this task or goal. Yes, it can be hard, but your victory will be sweet.
7. Dreams and desires
Having no desires can certainly affect your levels of motivation as well as your laziness. When you start envisioning yourself with your perfect job, house, partner, and social status, your desires are automatically inserted into your subconsciousness.
Without awakening your desires you will never be able to overcome laziness and lead a more successful life.
That is the reason why it is good to be daydreaming sometimes. Imagining your perfect life can trigger you into making an effort to achieve it. So, think about a picture-perfect life and write down your desires, so they can remind you why you need to be at least a little more productive!
8. Social Status
Social status is a measurement of social value. Staying on the bottom of the ranks of the social hierarchy can greatly increase your laziness. This is happening simply because you want to blame someone else for your failures. In this case, you want to put the blame on your laziness for the stagnation that is happening in your life.
This way you can justify yourself to society for your mistakes and under achievements. But, at the end of the day, this will not help you move out of bed. So, stop the blaming and start thinking of creating a plan that will get you out of the laziness.
9. Being easily distracted
In this day and age, there are so many things that distract us we are not even aware of. Distractions are not directly causing us to be lazy, but they are the primary reason that makes us stay lazy. Watching another episode of your favorite show, scrolling down on Instagram for hours, or reading some gossip – we’ve all been through that phase!
Overcoming laziness while being easily distracted is like fighting a lost battle. No matter how hard you try, if you don’t step back for a while and examine the things that cause distractions, you will never be able to go out of the lazy slump. The easiest and fastest solution is to turn off the TV and put your phone in the drawer, for at least 2 hours a day. Now that’s an awesome habit!
10. Being irresponsible
Being irresponsible can put us in very difficult positions. The more we delay things, the harder it is to finish them on time. Irresponsibility creates an enormous amount of pressure that makes us feel lazy, simply because we don’t know which tasks to finish first.
The easiest thing is to give up, but this will make you miserable in the long term. You have the potential in yourself, you just need to become more responsible. It will help you achieve great things.
11. Blame it on the genes
There has been a research at Oxford University, where the scientists decided to analyze the DNA of around 90,000 people. They actually concluded that there is a certain possibility that genetics are the reason why some of us are lazier than others.
They discovered that seven genes were linked to physical inactivity, which is the answer to why some of us hate the gym so much.
But this doesn’t mean that genes are the reason why you don’t want to move at all.
Final Words
Overall, focusing on the main things that cause laziness will enable you to overcome every other aspect that puts you in a position to be lazy. Your first step should be targeting the biggest weaknesses you have. Then, start visualizing your dreams, goals, and achievements.
The third step is to write a plan that contains plenty of little steps that will make you motivated and ready to move forward. By creating all of these things, you will start noticing the process of overcoming the reasons that make you lazy.
By starting today, you are one step closer to a better future. Of course, you can always stay lazy, but at a level that will give you the opportunity to be productive as well.